I received a phone call this morning from Greg Caswell at the Emerald Foundation.
The Rotary Interact Club of J. Percy Page High School has been selected the winner of their youth environmental award , the Ron Kruhalk Award, for the province of Alberta.
The award will be presented in Calgary at their annual awards program on June 5, 2018. I don’t think we will be able to attend as it is in Calgary. They want to send out a video production crew to make a video about our spring cleanup and tree planting project.
The award is also $1,000 , that they would present during the spring cleanup project.
This last Tuesday we heard from Gem Munro of the Amarok Society, pictured. The Amorak Society provides educational programs in Bangladesh and Pakistan and is now starting a Canadian project as well. Gem’s wife Tanis Munro was the recipient of the QE II Diamond Jubilee Award in 2012 in recognition of her significant contributions and achievements.
Gem said that there are millions of children around the world in families that are too poor to send them to school. This is especially true in the slums of large cities in places like Bangladesh and Pakistan. The normal approach of addressing this problem is to build and staff schools, but it has not been successful in these poverty stricken areas. Many years ago, Gem and Tanis decided to try a different approach. Their idea was to teach mothers first and then have these same mothers go home and teach five children in their home the same lesson they themselves had just learned. The Amarok group closely monitors the progress of the mothers and also that of their their home based schools. In turn, many of these children then go home, of their own volition, and teach their families the same lesson. At the time they were told that this approach did not have much hope of success, as their plans would be interfered with by the slum landlords, the corrupt local police, the traditional muslim men or the local gangs of extremists. After eleven years of setting up schools of mothers in the slums these naysayers have been proven wrong and their approach is proving to be very successful. They have been able to have a big effect on the lives of many women, children and their associated families. In particular, the children have been given a path in life that gives them hope for a better future.
The program starts by teaching the very basics such as how to hold a pencil and moves on from there. They learn to read and write in their own language and then learn English as well, as this is the language of the educated in their country. Each mother then goes home and teaches the lesson to five children from her neighbourhood at a time of day convenient for them.
Many of the children in these poor areas must work to help their families survive, so holding the school at a time that does not interfere with their work is important for them. It is common in these countries to marry off eleven year old girls to thirty five year old men, so they end up with a lot of widows with children to support. The mothers have a very difficult time making ends meet so they nearly always enlist their children to work with them. These families end up as captives of their own poverty and the cycle renews with each generation. The school also teaches life skills to these mothers and they find that as they become better educated they make better choices both for themselves and their children. They do not have more children than they can support and do not marry off their daughters at such a young age.
Gem presented the stories of three children whose lives have been changed by their schooling. Aki, a young girl who helps her widowed mother clean homes during the day and attends a neighbours school in the evening. Meen, an eight year old girl whose mother had too many children to support so she ‘gave’ her to a wealthy family as an indentured slave. Meen attends school after work, and then goes home to her family to teach them the lesson she learned that day. Finally, Siubo an eight year old boy, who works long hours operating a tea stall, who attends school after work as well.
Amarok is also starting a new initiative in Canada to give more educational options to people living in isolated poor northern communities. Gem and his wife started out teaching in the far North and think they have a pretty good understanding of the problems faced by the people in these communities. They plan to provide short intensive training to prospective young people from these communities, who will take what they have learned back to their communities and teach it to others in turn. Rotary has always been a big supporter of Amarok and they are calling on us once again to support them both for their work abroad and in this new initiative.
Greetings Rotarian members and younger guests, After a brief introductory session, several of you suggested you'd like to invite people to another interactive session with the brain in mind. Let's do it! Let's bring together older and younger participants for a special inter-generational brainstorming session on April 24th . Together let's LEAD ROTARY INNOVATION WITH THE BRAIN IN MIND. We'll integrate our ages, survey our intelligences, toss in a dose of the brain's wellbeing chemical and enjoy a growth mindset outcome together! Oh, we'll enjoy lunch too! Expect fun interactions as we design service opportunities for a new era, all while you discover how you are smart. Supported by our club members, energized by you, and facilitated by Ellen Weber. Hope to see you there!
We would like to invite you to attend the Rotary Club of Edmonton Strathcona- Special Lunch Meeting on Tuesday April 24th, 2018.
We are having a special meeting to plan and lead Rotary innovation with the brain in mind, and to encourage more young people to get involved with our Rotary Club.
We plan to have some round table discussions with our current club members, and some dynamic young people, like yourself, to “Connect The Thoughts”. It will be facilitated by our club member, Ellen Weber PhD. We will look at current life challenges in our community and beyond, and we plan to develop Rotary based solutions, and potential projects and initiatives.
We will be meeting at our regular club location, the German Canadian Cultural Association, 8310 Roper Road, Edmonton, T6E 6E3. The lunch meeting starts at 12:00 noon and will finish at 1:30 PM.
If there are other people you know who would like to attend, please feel free to invite them, just let me know their names.
There is no cost to you. All we ask is for you to RSVP to confirm if you can attend. I hope you can make it.
We would like to send our most sincere thanks and gratitude to our volunteers who have lent their time, talents, voice and support to Youth Empowerment and Support Services over this last year.
In celebration of the International Volunteer Week, from time to time, we come across interesting opportunities and we would like to pass this one on to you for your consideration.
We have a new association with GoAsAGroup.com, they provide discounted pricing on a wide range of local: Events, Attractions, Services and Dining options.
GoAsAGroup collaborates with professional sports teams, entertainment venues and local services. Venues like Edmonton Eskimos, Edmonton Prospects, West Edmonton Mall’s attractions, the Alberta Ballet, Roxy Theatre, Citadel and the Mayfield Dinner Theatre. They also work with local businesses: Golf Courses, Restaurants, Indoor Children's Facilities, Fitness Studios, Escape Rooms and Beauty services to mention a few. GoAsAGroup has no membership cost. You can also invite your friends and family to join and use the service as well. If you have any related questions, please feel free to contact GoAsAGroup directly: info@goasagroup.com.
To join GoAsAGroup select the following link:app.goasagroup.com/yessand create an account. Their system will send you an email to verify your email and activate the account. To complete this step, simply click on the link in that email and then login.
We hope you enjoy this service and again Thank You for all that you do!
A number of volunteer opportunities exists with YESS. The bingo events are listed below. Check also the one day event, YESS 2018 Gala for Youth at THIS LINK.
Hello, We are in search of volunteers to help work at a Caesars BINGO in West Edmonton Mall. YESS has been selected as one of the charities of choice. They require at least 2 volunteers at any of the following dates:
Sunday April 1st – Evening Shift
Friday May 25th - Evening Shift
Saturday September 8th – Afternoon Shift
Thursday October 4th – Evening Shift
Sunday November 25th – Evening Shift
Please let me know if you or anyone you know would be willing to volunteer a shift in support of YESS at the Caesars BINGO hall in West Edmonton Mall. Thanks you so much.
Our Rotary group has partnered in a joint venture with the Rotary Club of Pretoria to help raise funds for the New Hope School in Pretoria. Patrick Gibson has put together a presentation that he will be making to the other rotary clubs in our area to encourage them to help us with this venture. Our goal is to put enough funding in place for us to be able to apply for a Rotary International matching grant.
Patrick gave us the same presentation he will be making to other local rotary groups. It included a short introduction on the New Hope School, followed by a video that has been prepared by the New Hope School. The New Hope School has been one of the projects of our club for some years now, and most of our members are well aware of the work they do in schooling for handicapped children in the Pretoria area. They provide many services above and beyond the usual schooling activities, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and many others, as needed by their students.
They receive only basic funding from the local government, so must fundraise to provide these other services. Some of the specific projects our funds could be used for would be a specialised playground, or programs to provide technical skills such as kitchen skills, nail and hair salon skills and sewing skills. Patrick has also put together a ‘Go Fund Me’ page on the web, on which people can get more information, view the video and make contributions. We will also be adding a link on our Rotary web page to this site.
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